...Q: Some people have reacted strongly to your statements about
the issue of gay marriage in your interview with LBC radio.

A: Lots of people have.

Q: Were you in fact
blaming the death of Christians in parts of Africa on the acceptance of gay
marriage in America?

A: I was careful not to be too specific because that would pin down where that
happened and that would put the community back at risk. I wouldn't use the word
"blame"- that's a misuse of words in the context. One of the things
that's most depressing about the response to that interview is that almost
nobody listened to what I said; they mostly imagined what they thought I
said...It was not only imagination, it was a million miles away from what I
said.

Q: So what exactly were
you saying?

A: What I was saying is that
when we take actions in one part of the church, particularly actions that are
controversial, that they are heard and felt not only in that part of the church
but around the world...And, this is not mere consequentialism; I'm not saying
that because there will be consequences to taking action, that we shouldn't
take action. What I'm saying is that love for our neighbour, love for one
another, compels us to consider carefully how that love is expressed, both in
our own context and globally. We never speak the essential point that, as a
church, we never speak only in our local situation. Our voice carries around
the world. Now that will be more true in some places than in others. It depends
on your links. We need to learn to live as a global church in a local context
and never to imagine that we're just a local church. There is no such thing...Read more.